ADW

About a month ago, XDA-Devs member newone757 created a really great theme based on the one used in Windows Phone 7 - hence the name, Android Phone 7. He was kind enough to post the image files, a template image, and a short how-to, as well. I've taken the personalization a step further and created icons to fit my needs, and now it's your turn.

This theme was made for, and written using, a high resolution device (EVO 4G - 800x480).

Today's tip is common sense to those Launcher Pro/ADW users who are aware of it and pure bliss to those who aren't. Normally, if you drag an icon on your homescreen to the trashcan, the icon simply gets removed from the given homescreen. However, if you keep holding it over the basket, the action turns into "Drop to uninstall," becoming the fastest way to remove apps that I can think of.

One of the most popular alternate launchers, ADW Launcher, perhaps known best for being bundled with CyanogenMod, has just received a welcome update. Version 1.20 now grants you the ability to fluidly resize your widgets, much like the launcher provided by MOTOBLUR. This allows you to treat your desktop much more like a customizable canvas than a rigid set of squares.

Along with this update, developer Ander Webbs also released an auxiliary service called ADW Notifier.

If you're not using the launcher that came with your phone's version of Android, chances are you're either using ADW Launcher or Launcher Pro. Launcher Pro may not be open-source like ADW is, but it includes some enviable features. This is not the total re-write that dev Federico Carnales blogged about a few days ago, but it is still an upgrade worthy of a new decimal increase.

Besides bugfixes, this latest update brings another cool trick to the table, specifically swipe-up pop-ups in your launcher's dock which show details of relevant notifications.

Are you an Ubuntu fan? Then you are going to love Ryan Olson, the designer behind the Ubuntu Theme for ADW Launcher. Ryan launched the theme 4 days ago and so far it's been well received scoring a 4.28/5 average with more than 5000 downloads.